We arrived in Bangkok very tired, at 5 am and were delighted with our hotel. They've gone green vertically - lots of ferns and other climbers planted in vertical 'sacks' with an intricate watering system. My tired eyes were round like saucers - especially loved the idea of green going up.
Our room - the loft suite - delighted us further. It had the same type of a vertical garden inside in the rooms entrance foyer.
After resting till late into the morning, we went to one of the biggest shopping mall called Siam Paragon. Our window shopping intentions were short lived because we were very hungry - so we did some food hunting instead. There was a great big area with several different types of food on offer. The displays were interesting - here's one with the whole menu in plastic.
This realistic looking omelet is plastic and so is the fried chicken curry!
We ended up eating Japanese and the green tea i took along with it tasted like boiled grass.
We also did some people watching. Notice the real strange ear studs on the guy.
Ulli had a bit of my Sashimi and was grounded after that with a really bad belly. I went out early next morning on a hunt for some imodium and glucose to get his intestines under control. A couple of immodiums later, we went out to visit Wat Pho - one of the biggest temple complexes in Bangkok.The Wat Pho complex consists of two walled compounds one in which is the reclining Buddha and massage school. The other walled compound, is a working Buddhist monastery with monks in residence and a school.
The reclining Buddha was all guilded and had a very nice benevolent smile.
The Wat Pho complex had some beautiful pagodas - some of were made to keep the ashes of royal decendants. These have beautiful ceramic mosaic work - i especially liked the 3D effect of the ceramics.
An old man outside the Wat Pho directed us to the pier on the Chao Praya river - we were quite keen on doing the Klong tour on the river. Klongs are water canals off the Chao Praya river. We rented a long tail boat for just the two of us and got a chance to see life on the water edges. But first, we had to cross the Chao Praya river.
Going into the water 'alleys' , we saw houses raised above the water. For some reason, most of the houses were in wood and people had put up little gardens in pots.
All signs of a very 'normal' daily life - curtains pulled up on a window, clothes drying....
An old lady sitting on her water edge balcony....
That's about all we managed on that day - but the best of all came in the evening when we went out to eat at a little place called Le Table de Tee.
It had Franco-Thai food and the cute chef is a young Thai who had worked at the Michelin star restaurant Roussillon in London for 6 years.
Poor Ulli's delicate state didn't allow him to eat much but i made the most of it. We both agreed that it was the best decision ever to go over to that little place.